Single Crochet Entrelac

After making two projects in tunisian entrelac I considered that topic ‘mastered’ (ha!) and moved on to experimenting with single crochet entrelac. This piece is a cloth of some variety and was most definitely an experiment.

1. Just like tunisian entrelac I made one long chain to work all of my squares into. For this cloth I wanted to make three large squares, 10×10, so I started with a chain of 61 (any multiple of 20+1 will work). (It actually turned out to be 10×11 since you need an odd number, but that amount of chains still holds.)

2. Single crochet in the second chain from the hook and the next 9 chains (10 sc). Then slip stitch into the following 2 chains (one to end this row, the second to start the next row).

3. Turn. Single crochet in 10 stitches across. Ch 1.

4. Turn. Single crochet in 10 stitches across. Slip stitch in the next two chains.

Repeat rows 3 and 4 four more times (11 sc rows total) except skip the final slip stitch. This completes the first square. Repeat from row 2 for each square (start row 2 in the same chain as your final slip stitch rather than the 2nd chain from hook).

Once you have 3 squares (or whatever you decided), finish off that color. Start your new color in the top right stitch of your first square. Just as before, follow the instructions from row 2, but you will be stitching into sc rather than chains. I decreased to two squares for this color, but you could do the same number again if for your last square you only used row 3 (the standard single crochet square). Finish off your second color and repeat once more to make a row of one, filling in the open space between the two squares you just made.

My original plan was to then turn the entire piece around and repeat the same thing on the other side (2 squares color B, 1 square color A), giving me a checked 3×3 square. However, I was running out of yarn and in the mood to play, so I decided to fill in the gaps and make a triangle. I am sorry to report that I don’t remember where I started, quite possibly in the middle and then going back to add the ends in afterwards. But, the basic premise is to start with the full 10 stitches and then decrease by 1 each row until the final row is just a slip stitch.

To get the triangle which doesn’t have a square to work up from, ch 11, sc in 10 ch across (starting at 2nd from hook), slip stitch to the appropriate row and continue as usual. In fact, this method would work from the beginning, there is no need to make a long chain to start, simply chain 11, work a single crochet square, chain 10 more and work a single crochet in that, repeating until you have as many squares as you like. Then for the next square follow the instructions above.

I like this method since you don’t have to change colors nearly as often as if you made all of these square separately, and I’m sure it could easily be adapted for different pattern squares that you just connected as you worked!